The present invention refers to an improved apparatus for the separation of agricultural or vegetable products that are joined to each other through relative connecting appendages, such as petioles, stems, stalks, etc., as for example cherries, small clusters of cherry tomatoes, etc., that have been previously picked and that normally arrive joined in small bunches or that are still connected to each other through the relative stems, in particular in the case of cherries.
It is well known that such vegetable products are cultivated on an industrial scale to be marketed through the networks of the large-scale retail trade. In order to be prepared for such use, the products must normally go through suitable treatment and processes, such as washing, separation from each other when they occur in bunches, clusters, etc., weighing, sizing, sorting on the basis of predefined characteristics such as colour, degree of ripeness, etc.
In general, these sorting operations are widely known and easily carried out without particular problems when the vegetable products reach the sorting systems and are loaded on it piece by piece, as is the case with apples, pears, melons, etc.
On the other hand, if these products are still bunched together, one of the first operations to be carried out on them is naturally to separate them.
Thus, when it is necessary to process agricultural products that are intrinsically joined in bunches or clusters, such as for example cherries, green beans, etc., it is evident that to singularize the produce (it is assumed that this term is well known to a reader who is an expert in the field), it is essential to eliminate any vegetable elements, such as stems, stalks, and petioles that originally keep the vegetable products bunched together.
For this purpose, there are various widely known processes and systems used to separate the groups of products into single products, that is, separated from each other.
Hereafter will be considered those systems that are used to separate the clusters exclusively by cutting the stems, stalks, etc., with rotating blades.
Later in the present description, specific reference will be made to cherries, but it is implicit that what is illustrated applies without any reserve or limitation to any other type of product having similar characteristics of occurring in bunches, clusters, etc.
Various known documents and patents illustrate different processes and elements suitable to performs the operation of cutting the stems, such as for example:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,492; U.S. Pat. No. 3,115,169; FR 2 672 776; ES 2241 465; FR 2 892 053.
The majority of such patents perform the cut by carrying the clusters to be processed/cut by moving belts, on which the clusters are often piled up in disorderly heaps.
The solution with moving belts, although simple to apply, does not however ensure that the cutting of the stems will be carried out in a regular manner, and particularly at a point removed from the knot joining the stems; this also occurs if the stems in the clusters are overlapped on the belts, due to the fact of being loaded on the belts in a haphazard and unguided manner.
This causes a serious problem in the field: in fact, it is widely observed that, in order to ensure a more pleasing and attractive presentation for the average consumer, it is essential that the stems of such products, for example cherries, be cut at a point nearest to the point or node connecting the stems, so as to avoid the very undesirable effect that some stems are too short, while other stems remain needlessly connected through a V-shaped connecting point.
Practically, this happens if the transportation and cutting elements neglect the essential fact that the length of the stems can vary, even considerably, from one lot of product to another.
Moreover, the use of the same system, be it of belt type or flat conveyor type, to carry clusters of different characteristics to the cutting area, almost always generates the problem described above.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,631 B1 discloses an apparatus suitable to carry the clusters to be separated to a cutting area having a plurality of rotating blades, where the individual clusters are sent on a plurality of upward sloping ramps of triangular cross section, so that the clusters overlap each other in a suitable manner in which the part of the stem that arrives at the point of intersection with the blade is naturally the closest part to the point that joins the stems.
Moreover, the height of the ramps can be adjusted to suit the average length of the stems of the lot of product to be separated.
However, this solution presents some serious drawbacks; in fact the movement of the clusters toward the rotating blades is obtained by a continuous shaking on the inclined support plane on which the clusters to be cut are placed, and this shaking is harmful for the products, especially in the case of delicate produce, due to their rubbing against the plane itself.
The continuous shaking of the inclined support plane also requires a suitable mechanism with a motor to which are connected cam elements, and, as is well known, the production of an alternative movement of a rigid structure with respect to another rigid structure entails a greater complexity of construction of all the drive and control devices.
Finally, as can be appreciated from FIG. 9 of the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 7,033,631 B1 patent, the inclination of the ramp 46 is substantially constant, apart from the end section 48, which has an inclination slightly different from the inclination of the initial section; and these inclinations of the ramp 46 are invariable, that is, they cannot be modified to suit the length of the stem; this causes an inefficient adjustment of the cutting operation because, as is shown in FIG. 9, with short stems the cherries can reach a position on the ramp 46 such as to become detached from the vibrating plane 38, and thus their movement toward the rotating blades will obviously be hindered, or even prevented.
It would therefore be desirable, and is the main objective of the present invention, to realize a type of automatic system for cutting the stems of the clusters of vegetable products that makes it possible to cut the stems in the area of the point of connection, without encountering the problems described above.
This objective is achieved through an apparatus built and operating in accordance with the accompanying claims.